1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention relate to mobile communications, and more particularly, to a handover in a mobile node.
2. Description of the Related Art
Advancements in communication technology have resulted in several types of communication networks. Typical examples of communication networks include Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) links based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standard, the IEEE 802.15 standard, and the IEEE 802.16 standard; and cellular links based on the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and 3GPP2. Mobile nodes including different types of link interfaces to allow connection to various links have been introduced. A standard (IEEE 802.21) to support handovers between the various types of links has been established as well.
The IEEE 802.21 standard supports a media-independent handover (MIH) between various links. The IEEE 802.21 standard presently under discussion specifies, among other things, a Point of Attachment (PoA) capabilities information element (IE) to deliver PoA capabilities information to a mobile node. The PoA capabilities IE represents the security for and the quality of service (QoS) of a PoA, whether the PoA supports Internet Protocol (IP) version 4 (IPv4) or IP version 6 (IPv6).
Even if the PoA supports IPv6, it is important to learn beforehand whether a mobile node will use an IPv6 prefix to generate an address to be used for communication with the PoA. However, the IEEE 802.21 standard currently under discussion does not consider this issue. Accordingly, when following the current standard, use of a router solicitation (RS) message or a router advertisement (RA) message causes delays in generating an IPv6 address.